Home soon

Okay. 4 days and I'll be home for about two weeks.
And at this time of preparations and stuff, my one month old mp3-player decides to not let me use it anymore. What am I supposed to do now? The battery to my PSP wont hold fot the whole of my journey, and I'm out of books to read. The bus from Oxford to Stansted is 3h40min(!!). That's longer than a plane to Finland from here... I'm also quite out of time to get some new books, if I don't throw away my lunch breaks for book shopping.

Hmm. That actually sounds like an idea.
And I also should go back to WHSmith to tell them what I think about their mp3-players they sell. Cheap doesn't mean they don't have to work properly.

Enough angst.

I'm frikidilling going HOME! :D
Haven't seen my friends for four months! Except from Jenny and Emma, whom I went to London to see. A nice soft start to the Swedish language again, which I don't speak to often these days. It feels quite weird to speak Swedish, none the less Finnish! Geez..
But I'll get tho hold of both in a day or two.

Vi syns snart. Jag kan int vänta. NUUH!

There they go again..

"They just keep talkin and talkin but they have nothin to say"

Some ten days again since the last text. Sorry 'bout that. But this time I have an excuse ;)
It has been the World Aids week, and I have been swamped with work, both during days and some evenings aswell.

I was out collecting money on WAD (World Aids Day) and giving out a Red Ribbon to everyone who gave a donation. That evening, which also was my birthday, I had evening work. Tuesday was quite calm, just more clients than normal in the office. That evening I was at work until about 8pm (jaa alltså klockan 20 då för alla som använder klockan på ett normalt sätt), packing condom packs that the Young peoples' team give out, while a few others packed some that the Gay mens' team give.

Wednesday, drop in, Thursday staff meeting.
Friday: London to help packing stuff for the Young Peoples Conference being held on;
Saturday, doing random tasks on the conference that was held in the Baden Powell house in London.
During this weekend I've been on the THT office in London, the head quarters for the trust. Big office, many people. The people I worked with this weekend were all really nice! I loved every single moment of the weekend, even though I had to go back to Oxford for the night between Friday and Saturday.

Coming back from London I talked to a Belgian woman. She sat next to me on the train. We talked about famous people, politicians and from respective countries. Also a bit culture. Like what Finns wear when in the Sauna. She asked, and what else could I tell her than the truth.
She found it a bit odd that we drink maybe one or two cold ones in the sauna.
We also talked sbout the languages used in our countries. The whole thing was a giving conversation!

The coming week will be a little London, a little deliveries and MUCH paintball! :D

TJ 13. Kohta räjähtää.

Whaaat?! TEN days ago since I last wrote?!?
WHOA, that time went like a jetplane on speed. Gawd!

Not that much extra has happened acctually. This week has been full of trainings and deliveries and drop in's and health stands and.. Just plain stressful. But today was quite a quiet day in the office, so no worries there.

The D day is even closer now.
And my birthday is coming up.

No plans for the weekend. I have the house to myself though.
Maybe a party for all my friends here in Oxford? Wow! One so far :D

TJ 21

Going home for two weeks.

Okay, the Day with capital D is closing.

On friday the 18th of December, I'm catching a plane to Stockholm Skavsta and then I'm taking the morning boat from Stockholm towards Åbo.
"Huh? Why not fly directly to Finland" you might ask?
The only answer I will be giving is there is a reason for it (obviously).

Gonna say hello to my friends in Pargas, some of them will probably be pretty surprised to see me. Hopefully at least some of'em will be glad :)
The ones I've spoken to about my plans have been very positive to the idea, seeing as they've thought I wouldn't be coming home a all during the year.

I'm waiting for the holidays like a little child is waiting for Santa. Who wouldn't?
I haven't seen my friends for four months, and then the special little twist I might talk about some day. I remember sitting on the back entrance's stairs of my old work place, talking with my colleague about me "only having 70 days of employment left". That' quite a while ago... :)

And WILL I go out partying with them? Sure will! Let's just hope I can sleep somewhere :D

TJ 32

Halloween in London

So. Last weekend was Halloween. Just a few days before the weekend, my cousin asked me if I wanted to come to London for a fancy dress party. Since it was only a few days before, and I had no idea what to wear and I recently lost my wallet with all my credit cards in it, I had say no. Then she came up with the brilliant idea that I should dress up as Håkan Hellström, a Swedish singer/songwriter.

“Just put on one of those hats of yours, and write ‘Ta mig till kärlek’ on a white t-shirt or a piece of cardboard, and that’s it!”

That persuaded me, I loved the idea of being dressed up at HH! And so, I bought a return ticket to London and went out scouting for a nice white shirt and a t-shirt. This after looking on pictures of Håkan, so I could get the best available clothes.

When I came to London on Friday night, I met up with my cousin and we went for a glass. We watched a bit of A clockwork orange when we got to my cousins boyfriends house. Interresting movie.

On Saturday morning we went out hunting for braces, the only thing my dress didn’t have yet. Took a good few stores before we found some nice green ones.

When we got back to the house, there wasn’t much time left before we had to leave to the party. Neither one of us knew what size of a party it would be, but once there we got surprised on many people there were. We saw everything from the devil and Wednesday Adams to an Egyptian Pharaoh and a dead nun. Oh, and not to forget, the party thrower. He had the best Joker make up I’ve ever seen, and had a nurses dress on. Priceless! I had a really good time on the party, talking with random people about.. well, anything that came to mind.

Some people tried to pronounce the text on my T-shirt, some of them actually got it quite right, but no one understood what it meant, and thought they were being stupid. The sentence “It’s Swedish for ‘Take me to love’” made a few light bulbs glow..

On Sunday we watched the last bits of A clockwork orange and then I had to start packing so I wouldn’t miss my bus back to Oxford.

This Halloween was the best one 'I’ve ever had! Thank you Sofia and Ant, for everything! I owe you big time.

This is me as Håkan Hellström

This little beauty sat outside the main door.

PS. My cousins blog. Mainly in Swedish. A few posts back there are more photos from the party, but take your time and read som other posts aswell :)

PPS. Sorry for the bad image quality. Someone should take their time and teach me how to do it properly.

Losing and gaining.

One odd week ago, I lost my wallet. It kinda sucks.
I had to block my bank cards, and my driving license was in there as well....
Oh well. I got a new card from my British bank after two days, and it's good that I leave my Finnish account untouched for some time :)

Last Friday night me, Lera and one of our supervisor and her family went to Millets farm to experience the "Mass-acre Maze", a Halloween maze in a cornfield with some hired people running around scaring the living hell out of the people walking in it. I shot a video of 99% of the time we spent in the maze. I'll put it up sometime, if I remember :)

Tomorrow Friday, I'm going London to my cousin, and on Saturday night we're going to a Halloween party. I'll dress up as Håkan Hellström :D It was my cousins idea, and I like it!

And the latest news, I'm going home for Christmas and New years! OoOh!
My first plans was to go to Liverpool to some EVS friends, but since then, something has happened, and I've chosen to go home instead.
No, nothing bad happened. Not bad at all acctually. :)

Happy Halloween!

Ps. All of you non Finnish people who might read this, remember the words "Maalaisjärki" and/or "Bondförnuft", I'll talk about it another time :)

Work progress, language and life

Everyday that goes by on work makes me like it even more! The thin we do is not only very important, it's also very fun to do! Soon we, me and my EVS buddy, will be able to deliver our own sexual health stands, so that's really good!

From now on I will write this blog in English only, since I have people reading this from almost all over Europe.

My life seems to be going quite good right now. I really enjoy my work, I have good contact witht he people at home, and soon I'll be getting to know some Oxfordians as well! And there is another thing I'm really happy sbout at the moment, but it's too early to ay anything about that.

Oh, and today I bought the sixth part of the trilogy about The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy. Hope it's good!
Now I'm off to finally listen to an artist that I've been waiting to liten to ever since I read the lyrics of a few songs of his.

Until next time, cheers
// A flying Finn.

The long awaited video!
And why not the link to the photoalbum aswell? Don't worry, you don't have to be signed in to look at them.

Photos:
Mr. Woodnote and the Bonobo Hobos in Oxford, Swindon and Bristol

AAAAND the video :D


Enjoy!

Nödlösning 2.0

Med den rubriken kanske ni undrar va ja talar om, när jag aldrig ens nämnt en Nödlösning 1.0.
Nåh. Nödlösning 1.0 var att surfa me mobilen i dens engna yttepytteskärm, på obila versioner av de fyra viktigare sidorna:
- Google
- yahoo mail
- x3m-comunityn
- Facebook.

Nödlösning 2.0 går fortfarande ut på att surfa med hjälp av mobilen. Men denna gång använder jag den som externt modem. Ipluggad i datorn fungerar telefonen som ett mobilt bredband (mokkula). Att ja int tänkt på de tidigare. Såhär ha ja ju surfa tidigare.

"Men! De e ju hur dyrt om helst!?" kanske du funderar.
Med min operatör får man, förutom en massa minuter till telefoner med samma operatör, även tillgång till Live Messenger, Skype, och vid varje top up (keditladdning) 150MB att surfa med.
Visst, mobila sidor är ju mycket mindre i form och storlek, och tar därför färre MB att använda, men vill man kolla sin mail, facebook'a loch x3m'a litet och skriva ett och annat blogginlägg, så fungerar det hur bra som helst. Något youtube eller sånt så e de ju inte tu tal om, men de klarar man sig utan.

Delivery'n igår skrev ja inget mer om. Det kan jag göra nu istället.
Det vi gjorde va att vi satt i ett rum som gränsade till aulan i en skola här i Oxford. Dit fick skolungdomarna droppa in och fråga frågor om sexuella hälsa, (ska man översätta sexual health så, eller finns det något bättre?) få gratis kondomer, eller utföra klamydiatest. Allt detta gratis.
Jag gillar THT.

1 down, 11 to go.

Första månaden är över, jestas va snabbt de ha gått!
Såå.. va ha vi hunni me denna månad?

Flyttat in, lärt känna jobbet, fått ny dusch, åkt på spontan resa söderut.
Ganska lyckad månad!

Och imorgon ska ja me på min första "delivery", då en ur ungdomsteamet åker ut och visar upp THT på fältet. Vi ska till Abingdon College,
och min uppgift blir att svara på frågor så gott jag kan, ocg kasta kondomer på folk, och ge ut broschyrer som passar det som en person kanske råkar fråga om. Får se hur det går.

Har fortfarande inte internet hemma. Först måste jag få ett utdrag ur min credit report för att kunna ringa till samma bolag som ger ut ovannämnda rapport, för att fråga hur ja kan höja min credit level så att The Post Office förstår att jag nog kommer att kunna betala räkningarna..

Ploppar kanske in med ett inlägg imorgon angående delivery'n.

Monkey see, monkey do, Monkey die.

Yeaterday, at about 2 o'clock, while on town just to make time go by, I heard the beat from some street musicians. I liked the beat, so I followed it to a square, where I saw one guy with a saxophone around his neck, one guy in some goofy looking sun glasses, and one guy with a woollen cap.

The beat, obvious beat boxing, came from the speakers, but none of the three were making the sound. "Odd", I thought.
Still liking the sound of it, I decided to sit down, take out my camera and shoot some pictures. Starting to love it, I noticed the girl on my side were holding up some CD's, waving with them and probably selling them.
I bought one of the CD's, sat back down, and thought I'd film it.

In the middle of a few songs, they presented themselves as Mr. Woodnote and the Bonobo Hobos, and explained how they do the music. The saxophonist/beat boxers' (Mr Woodnote's) microphone is commected to a loop station, which loops recorded sounds (no shit?) and can add sound effects to recorded sound. They had no pre-recorded sounds with them. In between of every song Mr Woodnote recorded the background beats and riffs needed, and during the song itself played some additional sax, while the other two, Theo and Lil' Rhys, did the text.

1½ hour later, the band was banned from Oxford.. Forever. "Why?" you may ask. The thing that they were selling CD's without permission. They made fun of the fact of their banning before starting to pack up their things. Wanting to thank them for the best 1½ hour of my time here in Oxford, I went up to them, thanked them and then asked Mr Woodnote;
"So, if you're banned from Oxford, where will you be playing next?"
"Well, were going to Bristol to play at a street party tonight."
"Hmm.. How do one get to Bristol from here" At this point, they already knew I'm not from around
"Well.. we do actually have a few spare seats in our truck, we could give you a lift?"
"Sound splendid! When do we go?!"

And about one hour later we were on the road towards Bristol. I was in the same truck as Theo and Lil Rhys, Mr Woodnote, his brother and girlfriend (the girl who sold CD's) was in another truck, heading the same way.

In he truck the two told me we were going to stop in Swindon, to do another gig on the streets. So we did, and I did my thing with the camera. The only thing the city council people thought in this city was "The music you play is good, I love it! But coukd you turn down the volume a little bit?" There was a gut who went up to the performers and asked if he could try some singing, he could, and he was really good! A few moments after the first guy left, there was another guy, this one maybe in his late teens, who came up and wanted to sing.
And if the first one was really good, this second one was nearly a god! He was fantastic!

After this, we packed down and went on to Bristol, where the boys performed at a street party for the seconf year in a row.
Well actually, last year it was a house party on the second floor of a building, but the band then caused so much jumping around and dancing, that the floor bended and radiators fell of the wall.. So this year, everybody thought the street was a better choice, but thus, there were no less dancing (or drinking)!

Having to catch the last train back to Oxford, I asked Woodnote how to get a cab from here to the station. He just flipped up his phone, called a number, told the person he talked to to come to "this place" and pick up a guy with a checkered hat.

We waited around for about 5 mins and then the car was there. I said farewell to my newfound friends, with a bunch of photos and videos in my pocket that I promised to publish on internet, and a joke-promise to introduce the band to the finnish audience. Whoops :P

On the train station I had to buy a ticket, and find out from where the yrain left. Since it was about 10pm there were no staff around to ask, so I went online on my phone and spoke to a good friend of mine who is back in Finland. With a low battery on my phone, there were no time for small talk, so I just asked her to tell me this and tell me quick.. Poor girl.. But she sorted it out for me, platform three and 22.33.
The result of that train was 22.40 and platform 11, but that was the train companys fault, not my wonderful friends' :P

There were obviously some repairing of the tracks going on, so we had to take a bus from Didcot Parkway (where ever that is) to Oxford. On the bus platform, where I had to wait for half an hour, I saw a few guys in the same situation as I was in, and decided to talk a bit to them.
We ended up sitting close o each other on the bus to Oxford, and that made the trip seem really short.
Well in Oxford, I had to walk from the railway station, since the buses in my direction weren't going that frequently, and the bus that my bus card works in didn't go at all.
I got home at about 1.30am, yet to have listened to the CD. I popped it in my computer this morning and weren't disappointed.
About now, my housemate is back from London, will find me not being in the house, and she has no idea what I've been up to. :)

When the video is uploaded, I'll add it up to this blog post, and edit this last sentence out :)

Fredag.. Jamen visst.

Hmm.. Fredag kväll..

Att vara ny i stan har sina sämre sidor. Man känner ingen än, vilket betyder att man int har så mycke till socialt liv än. Det märks på fredagkvällar.

Inom några veckor ska man väl ha träffa nån som man kan umgås med, utöver kämppisen, som btw för det mesta läser vidare på sin läkarutbildning.

Sitter på lokala Wetherspoon-restaurangen, snyltar på deras wifi, å älskar det nordiska tangentboret.
Finns visst nån från hemknutarna här i Oxford, men den personen ha ja int fått tag i ännu.
No worries, har ännu ca 50 veckor kvar här :D


BTW, if you don't understand this, but bloody well would want to, use google to translate. The text is written in Swedish.
Not only will you get information of my whereabouts, you will also have a great laugh at how fun it is to translate with google :D

Cheers, mates :)

The long expected update!

I'm back, stop the applause, you're embarrasing me!

Me and my fellow THT volunteer moved to Oxford about three weeks ago, and we've already made our landlord get us a new shower system. And the clothes airer in the house is rubbish, so I bought a new one. And I'm getting the money back! :D
The lawn looked more like a jungle when we moved in, so I mowed it. With an electrical lawn mower.
Jungle+electrical lawn mower=angry Per spending one hour more than needed on the lawn.
But the landlord was surprised when she stopped by. Always nice to make someone happy :)
She told us she usually calls a gardener to do that, with a petrol mower, before the new people moves in to the house, but she hasn't had the time. But the gardener is still coming, not only to mow the lawn, but also to trim the hedges :D. We then get a fresh start with normally grown garden, and not a jungle to fix with electrical equipment.

The office we will be working in the coming year is in the middle of Oxford, and that's about 15 minutes with the bus from our house! And we don't have to pay for the bus, we are provided with a monthly bus card from work!
The passed two weeks we have been getting to know the people around the office, and what kind of work the THT do.
The people working here are great! Easy to talk to, no tight a**es at all :D

We were on a sexual health delivery at a house for homeless people. Me and my vol(unteer) friend were sitting with the other people attending the delivery, and followed to get to know how a standrard delivery works.
Pictures of what can happen to a persons genitals with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) were shown, and prejudices about many STI's were followed up and confirmed or just thrown in the bin. A good discussion about what reactions different people can have when infected were held, and though we were there for a good two hours, I believe some people attending would have liked further discussions.
It seems the THT rwally opens peoples eyes. I love it.

Can't wait to start doing some work!

My vol friends will be working in the Young people's office. The people there work mainly with opening eyes of young people on STI's and providing support for infected youngsters.

I will be working with the Gay mens team, and we do more or less the same thing for gay men.
"Go out to clubs, throwing condoms at people and just be there for people who would like to chat" is a sentence that tells about one part of our work in the Gay Mens Team. My supervisor likes to use that sentence alot :)

EVS 6.9.09

Ungefär igår var det slut på BRC's on arrival seminar, och ungefär igår började även EVS's on arrival seminar.
Inget Oxford ännu, men gruppen vi var på BRC's seminarie så har splittrats, och de som åker till de norra delarna av Storbritannien har åkt iväg för att ha sitt andra seminarie någonstans norrut.
Skillnaden mellan de två olika seminariera, BRC's och EVS's (EIL, Experiment International Living, drar det) är det att BRC går igenom på projektnivå, alltså kan vi t.ex. fråga frågor som handlar specifikt om vårt eget projekt och så. Med EIL går vi igenom mer vad man som frivillig har för rättigheter och skyldigheter. Idag har vi dessutom gjort ett prov i arbetsplatssäkerhet, som vi haft lektioner om igår och idag. Healt and safety at work level one kallas certifikatet vi får, om vi klarar provet, och är väl säkerligen något motsvarande som työturvallisuuskortti i Finland :P Igår delades vi in i fyra grupper, och senare idag ska vi presentera de fyra länder som ingår i United Kingdom. Foton från det och rån de övriga dagarna ska jag försöka få upp på nätet så fort ja bara hinner. Stället vi är på, Guildford YMCA, ligger mitt i Guildford och här är allting på gångavstånd. En grej som är mindre bra är det att fönstret till mitt och min rumskompis rum vetter mot gatan, och redan klockan fyra på morgonen börjar rusningstrafiken och den slutar där vid tiotiden.Nåväl. Man vänjer sig. Och om man har öronproppar så går det nästan perfekt! :)
Så fort jag kommer till Oxford, på tisdag, är det registrering hos en NHS-godkänd (National Health Service) tandläkare och fixa till en tand som fått sig en törn, pga tyskt tuggummi. Efter det ska jag skaffa brittiskt telefonnummer.
Har haft problem med webläsare medans jag varit här, har prövat dem alla. Firefox, Chrome, Opera... Ingen av dem fungerar ordentligt. Så ni kan gissa vilken ja använder nu, och allt fungerar som det ska, hittills i alla fall. Lite genant att använda Explorer, men ska man ut på internet så ska man. Ikväll vankas det italiensk restaurang, men på meny fanns inget för mig, so I'm not going.
Måst hitt na aader ti jeit iställe...

Guildford 1.9.2009

EVS projektet är snart igångkickat!Jag och min fellow finländare var de första av de 25 Röda Kors-frivilliga att anlända.
Vi steg upp kl. 04 imorse, åt frukost. Åkte till flygplatsen, väntade.
Steg ombord på planet, åt frukost.
Steg av planet, åkte bil till Guildford, måste nästan betala £80 för skjutsen, tills vi fick saken utredd, checkade in på Guildford YMCA, åt lunch.

De e dagens händelser i ett nötskal. Snart får jag eget bankkonto, vilket betyder kreditkort, vilket betyder brittiskt telefonnummer... Vilket betyder 100 min (eller 300, beroende på vad jag vill betala i månaden) unlimited texts, unlimited 3-to-3 minutes, unlimited Skype (!!) och Live! Messenger Mobile (eller i vilken ordning didär orden nu sen kommer).
Ännu ikväll kommer armenierna och tyskarna, och imorgon börjar On arrival seminar.
Hinner kanske ännu höra av mig idag ännu.

Tschüs!

Nuuuu bränner de! 31.08.2009

6h till väckning,
10h till take off.
Söker mig till sängen, för å si omdär finns nån sömn åt mig.

Nästa uppdatering skrivs från Storbritannien.